Three signs you’re ready for a Spanish Christmas

Christmas in Spain is a wonderfully low-key affair

Christmas comes but once a year, but the pace at which it seeps into your consciousness as soon as September hits suggests that it is a solid four-month affair…

Where once the only way to express one’s exasperation that the shops had already begun selling “Christmas stuff” was to tell your friends or family, today’s world of Facebook and Twitter gives each and every exasperation plenty of reach and airtime. It’s the same with this year’s “Must-Haves”, or proud pictures of wonky Christmas trees erected on December 1; or garish decorations that probably double the annual electricity bill – social media means we see it all, all of the time.

And what have we learnt from all of this? Largely, that only a handful of people are actually already excited about Christmas. The rest are content to absent-mindedly ‘Like’ a photo, or maybe even post a pithy ‘Looks ace hun’, but generally, for most, it is too soon to get excited about Christmas.

Sure, come December 19 – a Friday, I’ve checked – and the promise of the office Christmas party, the journey home to see loved ones, the last-minute rush for gifts, then it’s fine to get excited.

But if you’re already experiencing Xmas overload, then it might be a good idea to try Spain for Christmas next year. It is a more low-key, traditional affair that can usually offer plenty of sunshine, excellent food and – the best part – wonderful time spent with the family. It can also work out cheaper, too, since the mad demon of consumerism does not need to be fed with such gusto in Spain.

Not sure if you’re ready, though? Well, if you’ve displayed any of the following three behaviours over the past few days, then you really are ready for a Spanish Christmas…

You’ve cried at a festive TV ad
Be it John Lewis, Sainsbury’s or Tesco, the UK’s big retailers are really trying to outdo each other this year. Christmas advert season is nothing new, and usually begins in early November, but the ante was upped a few years ago when John Lewis tugged at the heart strings with a nicely understated number that seemed to finally understand what Christmas is all about – giving.

The Sainsbury’s Christmas ad featured the WWI truce between British and German soldiers

A few years later, though, and that message seems to have been lost. Today it is all about hipster soldiers fighting in the trenches; one man’s battle with tangled festive lights, and even – weirdly – a boy’s desire to find his imaginary penguin a mate.

Charming or not, the UK’s biggest retailers will spend a pretty penny trying to lure your custom – £1.5bn in fact. Last year, that figure was ‘just’ £390 million. It is enough to make you cry. Which, ironically, is many retailers’ intention.

You know how many ‘sleeps’ it is
The world is not measured in ‘sleeps’. We have days, nights, weeks, months and years for such things. But Christmas is a different beast altogether. Counting down the number of ‘sleeps’ until the Big Day is fun as a child (if a little cruel – those days do seem to drag when you’re 10 years-old and can’t wait to get your hands on a Playstation), but adults should know better.

You don’t count the number of ‘sleeps’ until your next dental appointment, do you? Or the number of ‘sleeps’ until you next get paid? What if you have a nap during the day, thus skewing your sleeps-to-calendar ratio? Do you then have to stay awake for a night in order to redress the balance?

This kind of thinking is absent in Spain, and not just because of the famous siesta (45 sleeps ‘till Christmas and it’s already December 5^th? Nice work!), but because the Christmas season is exactly that – a season to be enjoyed, not one morning of excitable gift-giving, chocolate-munching, bacon-sarnie-devouring excess. Relax. Breathe. Drink that mulled wine and enjoy the fact that the most wonderful time of the year is right here, today, now.

You’re desperate for snow
This is fair enough. All those lovely TV ads, the Christmas movies, the cards, wrapping paper and song – snow is ubiquitous in them all. But when you look outside on the morning of December 25 you see nothing but grey skies, drizzle and errant crisp packets floating by on the stiff breeze, it can be depressing.

Sure, snow is great, but can it compete with this?

It’s just not the same. Occasionally it will snow in the UK on Christmas Day, but such an occurrence is increasingly rare. Nonetheless, a non-white Christmas can still put the dampener on many families’ get-together, even though it means they’re able to travel down the M1 without any hassle. Doesn’t matter – Christmas means snow, so no snow means a ruined Christmas.

It’s all far too stressful. In southern Spain there will categorically be no snow. How is that better, you may ask? Well, there is no expectation of snow, so no disappointment. Instead, it is very likely that Christmas morning will greet you with bright sunshine and temperatures above 20c – that’s warm enough for a beachfront stroll in summer clothing, a place at your favourite al fresco bar or restaurant, and perhaps even a nice tan while you’re out and about. What’s not to like about that?